


Orlando

by applejackcat



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 15:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3072581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/applejackcat/pseuds/applejackcat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rumpelstiltskin discovers a darker castle than any he’s ever known in a little place called Disney World. And also, a familiar face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Orlando

Gray awoke, and immediately Orlando’s swelter ground itself down upon him. He lay in a pool of his own sweat for as long as he could bear. Nothing awaited him today, this sallow, scruffy loner with a jagged black void where his memories should be.

He survived in the leanest sense of the term.

Whatever sort of man Gray used to be, that man had instincts and gumption. He could pick locks with his eyes closed, knew how to hit a vending machine to score a free extra treat. Sometimes Gray found himself assessing the security in small corner grocery stores; he could tell which would be the easiest to shoplift from and the ones where the security cameras worked.

So Gray never went hungry, and he always found a dry place to rest his head, but he lacked any clue as to what might make him happy. No past made for a lousy future.

Gray’s cheap cell phone beeped. He looked at the screen, saw a message from Lucy.

> _jack called in sick we need a pluto call in now and the shift is yours_

A little extra money never hurt. Gray dialed his boss’s number and listened to the ring.

ooOoo

Three hours later, Gray stood at the entrance to Disney World, sweating his balls off in a Pluto costume that reeked of body odor. His knees ached from bending down to hug the park’s younger visitors, and he had five more hours to kill before his shift ended. To think, he’d been excited his first day of work, certain that guttural pang he felt when he saw Sleeping Beauty’s castle would pay off, that he’d stumble upon some clue to his past.

Gray had hoped he might even meet someone to make him a little less lonely.

He’d been dead wrong.

His coworkers vacillated between manically joyful and soulless drones. You either drank the koolaid or you didn’t. Gray couldn’t find a place in either party, and after working in the Magical Kingdom for seven months, they only person he’d bonded with was Lucy, one of the go-to princesses.

Every so often, he’d look at Sleeping Beauty’s castle, or Peter Pan’s Flight, or the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and whatever had originally drawn him to Disney World flickered again.

_Push harder. You know this._

Then the faintest breeze of doubt would snuff it. 

A lull in the crowd gave Gray a bit of time to look around.

He took immediate notice of the Young Man, on the cusp of an age where such sincere delight at Disney World’s pageantry bordered on the unbelievable.

His curiosity piqued to new heights when he saw the Young Man’s companions, a veritable posse of attractive, wholesome looking thirty-somethings.

A rosy-cheeked woman maneuvered a stroller through the gates as a man, his blonde good looks and eager nature eerily reminiscent of the basketball-playing Golden Retriever Gray had watched on the television the night before, snapped pictures of a the stroller’s slumbering occupant. Another woman, as dainty as a teacup, teetered along on high heels, her arm linked with that of her boyfriend. The man was dressed in, of all things, a suit.

The Man in the Suit faced away from Gray, taking in Sleeping Beauty’s castle. The Teacup Woman burst into laughter, presumably at something her partner said, and elbowed him in the ribs. The Man in the Suit  had overdressed for Disney World as well as Florida’s heat, but then again, so had a dark-haired dame in a designer wrap dress and expensive sunglasses; this one looked with mocking disdain upon the first couple as she spoke to the last member of their party.

Gray felt dizzy when he saw this final figure. Pluto’s costume had a reputation for becoming sweltering even during Orlando’s milder days, so Gray knew the heat might be responsible for his feelings. But the longer he stared at her, the more he became convinced: this woman, blonde and severe and beautiful enough to make him giddy, held some clue to his past.

This band of oddities had become so distracted by the bright colors and intoxicating sights of Disney World that no one noticed when a giant yellow dog began to follow them.

ooOoo

When he’d nobly (and perhaps tipsily, after imbibing several glasses of Granny’s secret punch) declared at their engagement party that he would follow his beloved betrothed through the Gates of Hell, Rumpelstiltskin could not have imagined how quickly the call would come. He quietly shared this sentiment with Belle, who tutted distractedly at his whining.

"I believe the locals call it Orlando," she told him before pulling him over to an offensively expensive display of mouse-eared hats.

Rumpelstiltskin adored his fiancee with every ounce of his being, but he should have known better than to expect to find an anti-Disney ally in her. Belle had proven to be almost as excited as Henry about this wedding come farcical family vacation; she had been vibrating with excitement since they drove over the Storybrooke town line the night before. On the tram ride to the amusement park’s grounds, she’d gone so far as to elbow Charming out of the way for a better view of Walt’s welcoming arches.

Five minutes, thirty dollars plus tax, and two pairs of his-and-hers mouse-eared hat later — Belle swore that if he wore one too that she’d wear her hat and nothing else for him later — Rumpelstiltskin admitted to himself that if his misery wanted company, he’d need to turn to his former protege.

“I fully plan flaying you alive and force feeding you your own eyeballs,” the Dark One hissed to the Evil Queen.

Regina snorted. “Such hostility so early in the morning,” she scolded. “I’d have thought your hat would have cheered you up.” She gave him her most wicked smile. “You know, the rides here have height requirements, and I don’t think the ears will count towards yours.”

Despite his earlier threat, and his very justified anger at Regina, Rumpelstiltskin appreciated her barbs. It meant someone else in this party hadn’t lost their mind.

“You think you’re a clever one, dearie,” he snarled, “but you plot and scheme with all the grace of an ogre.”

Regina arched one perfectly plucked eyebrow. “And what, may I ask, have I done to deserve such treatment?”

Rumpelstiltskin gave her a merciless smile. “I know you planted the seed for this idea in Belle’s mind.”

Her answering smirk confirmed his suspicions.

“I thought Henry suggested the Disney World wedding,” Regina purred coyly.

“As I said,” Rumpelstiltskin growled, “I know you planted the seed. Most thirteen-year-olds don’t encourage their grandfather’s bride to push for royal wedding at the magical kingdom.”

Regina’s smirk grew. “Worried Belle wants a prince after all?”

“Please, dearie,” Rumpelstiltskin snapped. “Belle wanted to come as soon as she learned she could hug someone in a giant dog costume.”

“That’s hardly better,” Regina snarked, and Rumpelstiltskin decided to be the bigger man and walk away, before he tried to shove one of his grandson’s mothers into Sleeping Beauty’s moat. As ever, he returned to Belle.

His wife-to-be and his grandson poured over a map of the park, excitedly marking off different locations.

“Wedding plans?” he asked Belle, kissing her gently on the cheek.

“No, Grandpa!” Henry waved the map in his face. “We’re going to ride all of the roller coasters.”

Belle pecked him on the lips. “Leroy and his brothers promised to handle the wedding details,” she said. “Our only job between now and the ceremony is to have as much fun as possible!”

“We should,” Rumpelstiltskin agreed. “After all, we’re the only ones paying for ourselves.”

Belle laughed. “Oh, please! As if I didn’t catch you passing on an invitation to Robin.”

Rumpelstiltskin sputtered. “Well, he played an integral role in our early courtship, if you recall. It seemed fitting that he bear witness to our matrimony.”

Belle tweaked his nose, and Henry made his displeasure at the romantic detour the conversation had taken know by waving the park’s map in their faces.

“Which roller coaster first?” he asked.

Rumpelstiltskin’s experience with roller coasters came entirely from movies and television. He planned to keep it that way. He looked at the map and chose a ride with a name he thought would appeal to Belle.

“Haven’t you always wanted to see the world?”

ooOoo

The group dispersed as quickly as they’d materialized. Gray had to choose: follow the Young Man, The Man in the Suit, and the Teacup Woman, or track Rosy Cheeks, Air Bud, and the Beautiful Blonde.

He heard the Young Man whoop excitedly, and the deal was struck. With a last wistful look at the Beautiful Blonde, Gray trailed after Young, Suit, and Teacup.

ooOoo

_“It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears! A world of hopes, and a world of fears!”_

If Orlando was truly hell on earth, Rumpelstiltskin thought, then this gaily decorated castle was the stronghold of Lucifer himself. Even Belle, who loved learning and exploration more than anything, seemed horrified by the sheer gaucheness of the animatronic singers. For Henry’s sake, neither of them used the strong adult language Rumpelstiltskin felt was necessary for discussing such crimes against humanity.

_“There is just one moon and one golden sun! And a smile means friendship to everyone.”_

All and all, thought Rumpelstiltskin as he, Belle, and Henry exited the ride, It’s a Small World was a far darker castle than any in which he had dwelled. From Belle’s queasy expression, she agreed.

“It baffles me that the same culture that invented hamburgers devised  _that_ ,” Belle whispered to him as Henry chose their next ride. Rumpelstiltskin had no interest in roller coasters, but perhaps the simulation being dropped off a steep cliff would make him feel clean again.

“Grandpa! Grandma!” Henry hissed suddenly, grabbing Rumpelstiltskin by the arm and pointing wildly across the park.

Belle gasped. Surrounded by adoring young girls and dressed in a golden ballgown was the Disney approximation of herself. A tall, broad-shouldered man in tight dark pants and a brilliant blue dress jacket stood with her, the beast-turned-prince to her Beauty.

Rumpelstiltskin’s stomach clenched. This park would be the death of him.

Despite shrugging off Regina’s jab earlier, realizing how ill-deserving he was of his true love never grew any easier. He was ashamed to admit that one rainy afternoon not long ago he had watched Beauty and the Beast online; afterwards, he’d been sick at how much taller and more masculine the animated beast had seemed compared to his old impish self.

“I pity her,” Belle said finally.

“How’s that?” Rumpelstiltskin asked.

“The breasts, for one,” Belle replied, and Henry chortled. “Way too large to fit under a suit of armor. She’ll never be able to go adventuring with those. And the prince. He just stands there, smiling. I’ll bet he’s never threatened to turn her into a toad or asked her to clean the pelts of the children he skins.”

Henry pondered this his information and walked ahead of his grandparents, which allowed Belle to slip Rumpelstiltskin a final ego boosting quip.

“And there is no way,” she murmured hotly, “that his  _estate_  is as large as  _yours.”_

ooOoo

“You’re going to get fired,” Lucy hissed at Gray, her Disney-perfect smile frozen across her pretty face. She’d been dressed as Belle today, one of the public’s favorite princesses and the same one she’d been performing as when she and Gray met. Beside her was Rick, one of Disney World’s duller cast members. “You need to go back to your scheduled position.”

“Don’t worry,” Gray muttered back through Pluto’s mask, “I have everything under control.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

If he’d had a strong reaction to the Young Man and the Beautiful Blonde, it was nothing compared to the surge of familiarity he’d had when he finally saw the Man in the Suit’s face.

When he saw that face, he felt like he’d come home.

For the first time since he’d awoken seven months ago and begun wandering the lonely world, not a single memory or bit of identifying information to his name, Gray felt like answers were coalescing within his reach. All he needed to do to unlock them was wait a little longer, push a little harder.

ooOoo

Rumpelstiltskin felt foolish.

He, Belle, and Henry sat with Leroy and his six brothers in the Flying Fish Cafe, and Belle still insisted he wear his ears. Rather than presenting them with helpful information about their impending wedding ceremony, Leroy engaged them at length about the ride dedicated to the Seven Dwarfs. Henry and Belle both wanted to pay the train a visit after lunch, and he had no idea how he would keep his lunch down without the aid of magic.

But most of all, he considered the suspicious yellow dog that he’d just realized had been following them since they’d entered the park.

It unnerved him, how this anthropomorphic dog wore the same sycophantic smile now, as he watched Henry eat, that he had several hours ago. Furthermore, how could that mouse with the shit-eating grin be friends with one dog and keep another as a pet? One of the dogs wore clothes while the other, perversely, wore none. Rumpelstiltskin suddenly felt as though he should shield Henry’s eyes.

Anything could be hidden under that suit. Anyone. Armed with only his cane — and how poorly would the wedding go if Disney World officials banned the groom from their premises for having a go at one of their beloved characters in a fit of answer-seeking rage? — and his considerable intellect, Rumpelstiltskin had no idea what to do.

Mentally, he took a step back and did what he did best: planned.

ooOoo

Gray might lack memories or much of an idea of who he’d been prior to seven months ago, but he had common sense. Perhaps it was the heady promise of finding some fucking answers that drove him to that final, desperate point. Maybe, ensconced within a giant furry dog suit on a sweltering Florida afternoon, the heat had taken the last bit of his sanity.

But when the Young Man broke away from the Man in the Suit and the Teacup Woman to use an empty men’s room, Gray took the opportunity to have some alone time with him.

No sooner had he entered the bathroom, one giant paw reaching out to grasp the Young Man’s shoulder, than several of the doors on the bathroom stalls flew open. A band of men emerged: Air Bud; a short, compact bearded fellow; and a man in a green shirt who’d cracked the code for the exact ratio of scruff-to-rugged jawline.

The Young Man stood behind him, as surprised by the others’ appearance as Gray.

“Grandpa?” he asked, looking to Air Bud, who didn’t look a day over thirty-five. “Leroy? Robin? What’s going on?”

“You watch Dateline, Henry,” came a clipped Scottish voice, dripping with menace and the promise of retribution. Gray whirled around to see the Man in the Suit blocking the exit to the bathroom. “You’ve heard of To Catch a Predator.”

Well, fuck. This wasn’t how he’d wanted things to go.

“I can explain,” Gray told them, and something about his tone caused the Man in the Suit to freeze.

“Explain why you followed a boy into a deserted bathroom?” asked the Compact Fellow. “Believe me. You’ll be giving us some answers before we’re through.”

The Man in the Suit ignored his companion. “Take. The. Mask. Off.”

When Gray did not immediately comply, the Man in the Suit repeated his command. He might be small in stature, but Gray suspected he always got his way.

“I need to be unzipped,” Gray admitted awkwardly. “And, maybe the kid should leave.”

No one stepped forward to help him, and the Young Man made no move to exit the bathroom.

“The zipper is on the back of the suit,” Gray said helpfully, and still no one moved.

“Some. Get. The. Fucking. Zipper!” the Man in the Suit snarled.

Air Bud gasped. “Hey, Gold! Language!” He gestured to the Young Man.

“Do you have clothes on under there?” as the Compact Fellow. “It doesn’t bother me either way, but maybe Henry should go, if this guy’s naked?”

“He already said to take Henry outside,” snapped the Man in the Suit. “Unzip him!”

“Rumpel!” came an anxious voice, Australian and as light as a chime. “We won’t be able to hold people off much longer! What’s going on?”

Scruffy took some initiative and stepped towards Gray. He fumbled for a minute, awkwardly grasping for a zipper, before locating it and pulling it down. The costume fell away, and the Man in the Suit looked like he might faint.

“Bae,” he murmured, stumbling forward. “Bae.”

ooOoo

In the quiet minutes before he drifted off to sleep, Belle cradled in his arms, Rumpelstiltskin sometimes inflicted upon himself what he thought of as the small death.

He would imagine the different fantastical ways in which Bae might return to him. The fantasies brought him some facsimile of happiness; the reality afterwards, not so much. He knew magic’s limits: dead was dead, no two ways about it. He was a foolish, desperate soul to subject himself to such agony.

Still, never in his wildest imaginings had he considered the possibility of finding Bae in Orlando, in the bathroom in Disney World, half-naked, stinking of body odor and looking far too gaunt, the remnants of his dog costume crumpled around his ankles.

He sat down, hard.

The man stared at him unknowingly. “We know each other.”

“I would say so,” Rumpelstiltskin replied.

Bae looked to Henry. His son gaped at him, tears gathering in his eyes. What a family reunion.

“Rumpel! What’s happening?” called Belle.

“It would seem,” her betrothed replied, “that we have found another wedding guest.”

ooOoo

Hours later, Gray sat by the pool of one of Orlando’s swankier hotels.

He knew his name now. Neal. Bae.

He had a son. Henry. A father. Rum. A soon-to-be stepmother who seemed closer to his age than his father’s and a beautiful blonde former lover, the mother of his son, with whom he could sense he had a complicated, unfinished relationship.

And yet he still felt closer to the man who’d woken up that morning, alone and desperate for answers, than Neal Cassidy of Storybrooke, Maine. Everyone expected him to return with them to the small seaside town, and after effectively quitting his job at Disney World, Gray had no reason to remain in Florida. But these people, his supposed family, they kept secrets from him. There were still doors that Gray needed to open to come full circle, and the people with the keys remained infuriatingly vague.

He heard someone approaching, and he turned to see Belle, his father’s fiancee, approaching him.

“Thank you for coming back here with us,” she said softly, sitting down beside him. She dangled her coltish legs into the pool and kicked lightly, churning bubbles. “You didn’t have to leave your job, but it means so much to us that you did.”

Gray shrugged. “I’ve been looking for answers,” he told her. “You’re the first group of people who might be able to give me them.” He looked at the ring on her left hand. “I hope I’m not disrupting the wedding.”

Belle shook her head, her blue eyes wide and earnest. “No, you’re the best gift we could have hoped for, Bae. Your father has missed you so deeply.”

“Did I leave?” Gray asked. “Everyone acts as if I’ve risen from the dead.”

Belle’s pretty face clouded with conflicted emotions. She obviously wanted to tell Gray something important, but she knew the cost might too great for them to bear.

“Okay, an easier question. Was I a good father?”

This time, Belle nodded emphatically. “Oh, yes. I would say so.”

A dark worry uncoiled inside Gray and blew loose. If he had been a good father, then there was a chance he could be proud of the man he used to be.

“I came out here,” Belle said softly, “because I have an inkling of how it feels to be a blank slate.”

Gray looked up from the water, intrigued.

“Not so long ago,” Belle told him, “I escaped the same kind of nothingness in which, I think, you’re currently trapped. It was very difficult, to see people with whom I had a history, but to have absolutely no context, no memories.”

“I feel like there’s a void within me,” Gray admitted, “and each day it grows larger, and I become more lost in it. How did you escape yours?”

Belle smiled softly. “Your father. Magic. True love. It’s one and the same, really.”

Gray snorted. “Magic?”

They heard another person approaching. Emma. She looked nervous, conflicted, hopeful. Gray wanted nothing more than to sit by her and get to know her. Even if he never regained his old memories, with her, and with Henry, he’d like to make some new ones.

“Good night, Bae,” Belle said gently. “Emma.”

As she left, she reached out and placed a hand on Emma’s shoulder. The other woman nodded gratefully at her. “Thank you,” she murmured.

“What’s family for?” Belle asked.

“I think that’s what we find out now.”

ooOoo

Belle found Rumpelstiltskin in their hotel room. Her true love might agree to marry her at Disney World, but he steadfastly refused to stay at one of its resorts. After the day they’d had, Belle couldn’t be more glad to be rid of the park.

“He has questions,” Belle told her lover, settling down onto their large bed and opening her arms for him. Rumpelstiltskin came eagerly to her and snuggled into her embrace.

“We can’t give him all of the answers. Not yet. We have no idea how he survived, why he woke up in Florida, how to restore his memories to him.” Rumpelstiltskin sounded forlorn. “I should know better than anyone, Belle. All magic comes with a price.”

Belle kissed his temple, the shell of his ear, his chin. “We need to ask ourselves,” she told him, “what we do if this is a spell we cannot break. If Bae never regains his memories, if we have him, but not the him we lost, what do we do?”

Rumpelstiltskin answered without thinking. “We love him. We adjust.”

“Now more than anytime before, we go forth in love,” Belle agreed. “We remember love’s best virtues, and we use those as a guide. Patience, forgiveness, acceptance of our shortcomings and his.”

“Love has never come easily for me, Belle,” Rumpelstiltskin whispered.

Belle laughed kindly. “Oh, Rumpel. Love comes to you more easily than any other emotion. You trust it more and more every day. I know you have it within you to be a father to Bae. If you feel like you might stumble and fall, I’ll be here to catch you.”

Rumpelstiltskin’s heart soared. He would never cease to wonder at the beautiful, brave, brilliant woman whose arms now wrapped around him and who has agreed to be his wife.

“I cannot wait to marry you,” he swore.

Belle’s eyes twinkled. “Funny you should mention,” she told him. “I’ve had more than enough magic as of late. I know we’ve traveled all this way, but I think I’d like something smaller, more simple.”

ooOoo

The wedding was small. Three guests, the bride and the groom, and the red-haired officiant. They gathered under a tree in a park nearby their hotel, and the bride did not wear white, although her impressive heels atoned for her lack of gown.

The groom’s grandson held the rings, and the groom’s son stood up as a best man, his smile tremulous but sincere. He struggled to keep his gaze focused on the couple and not upon his son’s feisty mother.

The groom took his vows first.

“My darling Belle. When I met you, I was mired in darkness, and I never thought I would escape. And then, you. A woman more brave and more selfless than anyone I’d met before. A heroine in the truest sense of the world. You gave me a flicker of light by which I could guide myself out of the pitch black darkness, back towards hope. Until the ends of my days, I will follow you, my dearest love, my greatest strength.”

Tears streamed prettily down the bride’s face. “My beloved Rumpel. You are every adventure I want to experience, and every step I have taken in my life has lead me here. I see you in the sunset and in the sunrise, in the ebb and flow of the tides, in the letters of every love story. I am, now and forever, yours.”

The officiant spoke briefly, confirming the couple’s commitment to each other. He pronounced them man and wife. They kissed, passionately, and the groom’s grandson looked to his father to make a face.

To his surprise, tears streamed down the older man’s face.

“True love’s kiss can break any curse,” he said, stumbling towards his own father. “Even one that’s not your own.”

And so Baelfire shed Gray and returned to his family.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 3pirouette for the 2014 Rumbelle Secret Santa extravaganza.


End file.
